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Stanley Cup finals, Game 6: The morning skates

Greetings from Boston, where the Stanley Cup will be in the house Monday night and will be awarded to the Vancouver Canucks if they defeat the Boston Bruins at TD Garden.

“I don’t want to see it,” Bruins winger Shawn Thornton said, knowing that if he does see it Monday it will be as a member of the losing team.

The Cup hasn’t been won by a Canadian team since 1993, when the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Kings. The Canucks, who entered the NHL as an expansion team for the 1970-71 season, lost in their two previous Cup finals appearances, in 1982 and 1994.

If the Bruins win — and the home team has won each of the previous five games in this series — the Cup will remain in its packing case to be shipped to Vancouver, where it would be awarded on Wednesday at Rogers Arena.

Reports have floated around the Internet that the Canucks had tried to sell the broadcast rights to a Stanley Cup parade later this week and that they were rebuffed by the NHL, but those reports have not been confirmed by the league or the team.

True or not, the possibility that the Canucks had presumed victory and planned a parade provided a good talking point at Monday’s game-day skates. The Bruins, of course, adopted an air of righteous indignation.

“As a lot of teams have found out, especially us last year being up 3-0 against Philly, it’s not over ’til it’s over,” Bruins winger Milan Lucic said, referring to the Bruins’ collapse and loss to the Flyers in the second round of the playoffs last spring.

Vancouver captain Henrik Sedin said the team hasn’t paid any attention to the parade chatter.

“We haven’t been talking about that. There’s always going to be talk from fans and media,” he said after the team’s optional skate. “We’re just focusing on the next game and that’s been the case throughout the playoffs.”

Vancouver winger Jannik Hansen said his team will stick with its routine and approach this “like any other game,” even though it’s not.

“We’re not trying to look too far ahead. It’s the task at hand,” he said. “We know if we’re not prepared for it, it’s going to be even harder.”

Check back for more coverage including a brief chat with Vancouver’s Maxim Lapierre, who spent two months with the Ducks this season before being dealt to the Canucks on the day of the trading deadline.